When you hear about the fiercest derby matches and biggest rivalries in Britain, the Merseyside Derby is scarcely mentioned. Billed as the “friendly derby” and with Sky cameras often picking out shirts of the away team in the home ends, in recent years this supposed spirit of goodwill and loving thy neighbour has transformed into something very different.
As is the case with supporters of many clubs throughout Britain, fans of these two giants of English football can hark back to an era where scousers would watch Everton at home one week and Liverpool at home the next. Although this practise didn’t continue commonly once the ‘70s and ‘80s kicked in, the rivalry did remain good natured for much longer.
When the teams dominated during the eighties, they faced each other in two Wembley Cup Finals and faced off twice in the Charity Shield. The first of these cup finals in 1984 lead to panic in the press and among the police at the prospect of trouble. Instead, a hundred thousand scousers descended on the capital together, in cars sporting a mixture of blue and red scarves, and on the same supporter’s coaches. The day passed without a hint of trouble, Wembley reverberated to the sound of fans singing “Merseyside, Merseyside, Merseyside” and “are you watching Manchester?” and Liverpudlians presented to the world a solidarity rarely seen on these shores at the time.
There are many theories as to why the fixture took on this sense of comradeship. They were both extremely successful throughout the 1980s, both winning titles in turn, and other than Liverpool’s European Cups there was no need for jealousy on either side.
Although the very early days of the clubs did have a religious element, with Everton having links to the Catholic community and Liverpool to the Protestants, by the ‘80s this was a complete non-issue and there were no obvious differences between the fan bases of each team. They were brothers, sisters, neighbours, all fiercely proud of their home town. A home town that was under siege from Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, whom it was later revealed, confirming what scousers felt at the time, was planning a “managed decline” of the traditionally left-wing, Labour supporting city. This sense of solidarity in the face of being ostracised by their country is one of the most compelling reasons for the birth of the friendly derby.
1989 and the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster is perhaps the most iconic example of the comradeship between Everton and Liverpool. It is said that there was nobody in Liverpool, red or blue, who didn’t know somebody affected by the tragedy, and footballing rivalry was put to the backburner as a City mourned its loss together. Scarves of both teams were intertwined and formed a trail from Goodison, through Stanley Park and ending at Anfield. In the FA Cup final at Wembley five weeks later, Liverpool thanked their neighbours for not allowing them to Walk Alone.
As football changed dramatically in the aftermath of Hillsborough, so did the derby. As the Taylor report necessitated all top-flight clubs to introduce all-seater stadia, capacities diminished and so did away allocations. Gone were the days of a sea of red in the Gladys Street End at Goodison, or a sea of blue on Liverpool’s Kop. In 2015, Merseyside police agreed for the fixture to kick off at 17:30 rather than at midday, on the condition that Everton cracked down on allowing away fans into the home end. Segregation is now the norm on these match days and a physical barrier is drawn between the home fans and the hardcore one or two thousand visiting supporters.
The clubs moved in different directions, too. With the game becoming safer and the Premier League becoming a hot new product for investors, Liverpool began to attract a match-day following from all over the world. Anfield became a tourist attraction and a global institution, bringing huge wealth to the club and ensuring their place at the top table of English football, while Everton struggled to move with the times and fell behind the emerging giants. The clubs were no longer on an even footing, and resentment grew particularly on the blue side.
There is an irony that as the game became safer everywhere else, this derby has become increasingly intense. In a time where Liverpool and Everton supporters were left to police themselves, they did so and mingled without trouble. Yes, they both desperately wanted to win, but a line was never crossed. It is only since they were removed from each other’s grasps for their supposed own safety that the tribal, aggressive side of the game has crept in.
After Liverpool’s part in the Heysel disaster in 1985, English clubs were banned from competing in Europe. This is often cited as a big reason for the change of atmosphere in the derby. Arguably Everton’s greatest ever team was denied the opportunity to add the European Cup to their collection. While this didn’t boil over into major resentment at the time, it is now referenced regularly, with “Murderers” becoming a regular chant from sections of Everton fans on a derby day. Liverpool fans controversially unveiled a banner on the Kop before a derby match celebrating the 1986 European Cup success of Steaua Bucharest; the year Everton felt they would have won it, had it not been for the European ban.
There is still a bond of solidarity between the clubs that rears its head. The Everton Supporter’s Trust and Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly groups came together to form Fans Supporting Foodbanks. With the tagline, “Hunger Doesn’t Wear Club Colours,” there are collections held home and away for food banks across the country. While opposing fans sing “sign on” and “feed the scousers”, it’s the Liverpudlian’s on both sides who are raising money and donating food to local foodbanks.
There is a new generation of support at both clubs who weren’t alive when this good spirit was evident on the terraces as well as off the pitch. Kids in blue that weren’t alive in 1985 are making wall pushing gestures and singing “murderers” at kids in red who also weren’t alive in 1985. Likewise there are youngsters in red feigning pride in those same events, singing “1-0 to the Murderers” and unveiling the Steaua Bucharest banner at recent derbies, all to get a rise out of their neighbours.
It goes without saying that not everyone wants it this way. Many Everton fans refuse to sing the offensive chants and many Liverpool fans would still say they’d rather go head to head with Everton for major honours than the Manchester or London clubs. Ironically, it is those Manchester clubs who seem to be building a shared bond this season as they hope to avoid a Liverpool title win.
Surely it is time for an effort to be made on both sides to remember what made this derby a special one, before it continues its toxic slide. It should be remembered, and taught to the new generation of supporter, that although much has changed, these two historic football clubs still have far more that unite them than divide them.
Into The Terraces 